Olena’s email:
Wishing you good health, Mr. Andrii. Olena [...], history teacher of [...] lyceum, is reaching out to you. I am forwarding a diary of my grade 9 student to you. She is a student at [...] lyseum of [...] village council, Vinnytsia region, [...] Alina. I am hoping for collaboration in the future.
With respect, Olena.
Alina’s letter:
Everything started on Thursday (24.02.2022). Just before that we were planning to go to the hospital. I woke up that morning from hearing the words: “The war has started! We are not going to go anywhere, because it’s not safe.” These were scary words because never before have I thought about how it could be to live during the war. On the first day, we were all shaking hearing the word “War,” everyone was nervous including me. We were often informed: “Attention! This is an air-raid siren! Go to the shelter immediately!!!” My parents were holding themselves together, they were not telling the news to my brother, because he takes any information close to heart. Knowing the consequences of war, we collected our most necessary belongings and documents, charged all the phones… When they informed us about the first air-raid siren, we dressed ourselves calmly, took our belongings and went to the shelter. I started shaking again. The siren ended. It was quiet outside. We went back to our house. Next day, around 5 am, there was another air-raid siren again. We were still sleeping at that time, but my mother’s quiet words: “Girls get up! There is an air-raid siren!” forced my sister and I to get up quickly. We dressed ourselves quietly but we were nervous, and then we went to our cellar. In our village in [...], everything was calm, but such cities as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv suffered the most. People started to run form big cities to villages and abroad in large numbers. The news were not comforting. Many men were taken to war. The majority was going voluntarily, including my dad. We were very worried for him, but he insisted saying “I will volunteer [to join the military], I cannot just look at how the enemy is destroying my Motherland!” When my dad was saying bye to us, I couldn’t hold my tears.
In order to not think about the situation, I drew, watched movies, but the pain for Ukraine does not go away. When there was peace in the country, I could always easily go for a walk, relax while walking my dog. Because of the martial law and the curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, no one can walk outside. After 6 pm, as soon as it would get dark, people would shut down their windows with whatever they could, someone would seal them with wallpaper, others would put curtains and blinds, yet others would stick towels around the windows and tried to not turn the lights unless in was necessary.
The enemy forces were putting light reflecting tags, which one could see well from a high point. There were Russians in Raihorod too, who were putting the tags around the village and at the railroads. The Ukrainians were informed that the most of Russian ammunition was destroyed. Because Russian Federation was weakened, Chechen people [meaning Kadyrivtsi, the regiments of Ramzan Kadyrov] came to help Russia by killing civilians of Ukraine regardless of their gender and age.
Many fighter aircrafts have flown over our village. One of the most famous Ukrainian aircrafts is the pilot of MIG-29, known as “The Ghost of Kyiv.” As of today, March 3, he has knocked 30 aircrafts of the occupiers. Because of the horrible events in Ukraine, they have canceled the Final State Certification [state exams after grade 9] for us. I got tired of sitting at home, I started going outside at least for half an hour. I am in contact with friends, we provide moral support to each other. You know how pleasant that is when your heart is heavy and a friend asks: “How are you? Is everything okay?” “How is the situation there? Do you have where to hide?”
Ukraine is supported by almost all EU members and other countries of the world. People go to the protests with Ukrainian flags, even foreigners sing the Ukrainian anthem. People make a lot of funny and truthful memes about Putin (Russian President). Such interesting cases have happened during the war:
- Gypsies [Roma] stole a tank while the occupiers were looking for gas
- The homeless people in Dnipro offered help in collecting bottles for Molotov cocktails (the Bandera smoothie)
- Obolon gopniks [youth gang subculture] pressured the Russians to give up their armoured personnel carriers with their bare hands and beat up the uninvited “liberators”
- The cyber Cossacks from Anonymous hacked Russian State websites in half a day and out wonderful Ukrainian music at all of the channels.
- Queen Olha of our times! A grandma put laxatives in the tea and burned the Russian in the closet
- Ion Henichensk, a woman was kicking out Russian occupiers saying “Take these sunflower seeds and put them in your pockets so that at least sunflowers rise when you are killed here! You came to my land!”
It’s night again. It seems that it’s quiet but… After waking up in the morning, I learned terrible, horrible news again. At night, because of the shelling of heating mains, Enerhodar is left without heating.
The situation remains difficult, but the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was indeed liquidated. The entire international community is with us now. The shelling stopped at 3 am. As of 04.03.2022, 8:16 am, the territory of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is captured by Russian Federation forces. The Ukrainians if the conscription age have started coming back from abroad. After the open invasion of Russia, only through the checkpoints in Lviv oblast, over 50 thousand citizens of Ukraine have come back. The occupiers have disconnected the mobile networks of Vodafone and Kyivstar over the whole territory of Kherson region. It is very difficult for the residents now, and on top of that they have turned off their connection. They cannot hold back their anger, and that is why they decided to protest against the fake humanitarian aid provided by Putin. The tenth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion. I cannot say much about us, because it’s quiet here. That’s why I will just talk about the news about what is happening in Ukraine on the 5th of March. A good news have cone from Vadym Denysenko, an advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “The Ukrainian Forces have gained back the control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.” It also became known that in the vicinity of Kharkiv, the enemy’s motorized rifle regiment 488 was fully destroyed. The Supreme Council of Ukraine has informed about the start of evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. Humanitarian “green” corridor was routed like that:[...]. At the outskirts of [...], the anti-aircraft system professionals have destroyed yet another stormtrooper of the enemy. The pilot capitulated, but he was found nonetheless. Because the Russian Federation does not often keep their word, it became known that the Russian side violated the agreements about the “green corridor” from Mariupol and started shooting, evacuation had to be postponed. The Russian army is not allowing evacuation of civilians and is shelling Volnovakha. Going back to yesterday’s event, it becomes known that the Russian army has destroyed the checkpoint of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and two National Guard members are in a difficult condition; two more Enerhodar residents are being treated at home.
At 2:46 pm in the Mykolaiv region, our marines, together with the Operational Command South shot four helicopters of the enemy, while one of the marines shot 3 at once.
Meanwhile, Voadfone and Kyivstar connection was restored in the Kherson region. Because of the horrible events in Ukraine, children are suffering. As of the 5th of March, 32 children died, 70 were injured.
Two injured children from Bucha died because the Russian occupants have continued the shelling, so the ambulance couldn’t pick up the children in time.
The National Bank of Ukraine opened a special account for collecting the money to help the army and for humanitarian needs, over 10 billions hryvnias have been transferred to that account already. The money was transferred by Ukrainian citizens and entrepreneurs, and also by the representatives of the international community. Television News Service (TNS) reports: “In Belarus, men are running abroad in large numbers, so that Lukashenka (the president of Belarus) does not send them to fight against Ukraine”. Some occupiers surrender to be the prisoners of war, due to the lack of water and food. The captives were saying that they don’t want to fight, they are forced, and their families don’t even know that they are in Ukraine.
In the evening, around 10 pm, we heard explosions, they were heard in all of our United Territorial Settlement. What happened – still no-one knows. On 06.03.2022, we could also hear explosions, and we could see the shells flying at 1:56 pm. In Vinnytsia region, the enemy has hit the airfield in Havryshivka. In Havryshivka, Vinnytsia oblast, Russia has launched a rocket attack on the military object. 8 rockets hit Vinnytsia – this is what the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.
First British volunteers are already arriving in Ukraine. They are ready to fight for Ukraine against the Russian army. War is war but …today an impressive event happened. Almost everyone in Ukraine heard about it. The thing is that the Ukrainian military stopped a car with girls to check the car and see “if there are weapons.” The Ukrainian girls kept their arms behind their heads. At first, I couldn’t understand what the video was trying to convey, except for the fact that the girls were detained. But then I noticed that the video was filmed not by just one camera, and then one of the militaries proposed to one of the girls. It was unbelievably cool. The girl was pleasantly surprised, and she said “Yes!”
It’s the 8th of March already. No-one will celebrate, I am 100% sure of that, because there is war. This morning, in Sumy, as a result of the aviation strike 9 people died, 2 of them were children. One woman was rescued from under the rubble. Over 600 thousand people were managed to get rescued from Kharkiv, the roads from the city are overloaded. Almost 80% of Ukrainians believe in Victory!
At the same time, the level of trust in President Zelensky has grown significantly since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and now it is almost 80%. For the evacuation of the civilians from Mariupol through the one route, the defenders of the city used a number of measures: they demined the roads, got rid of the infrastructural barriers.
But the occupiers did not let the children, women and old people leave the city. The enemy started attacking exactly in the direction of the humanitarian corridor. The general military casualties of the enemy from the 24th of February to the 8th of March, according to the vice minister of defense Hanna Maliar:
Tanks – 303
Armoured Combat vehicles – 1036
Artillery systems – 120
Multiple launch rocket systems – 56
Anti-aircraft systems – 27
Aircrafts – 48
Helicopters – 80
Automotive machinery – 474
Ships – 3
Cisterns with fuel and lubricants – 60
Tactical-level UAVs – 7
Irpin, Bucha and Vorzel are captured, the occupiers starve the people. These settlements mostly don’t have connection with the outside world, they have run out of food, and in some places, there is even no water, there is no electricity and heat.
From time to time, people’s homes are shelled by the occupiers with various kinds of weapons.
Around all of the vicinity of Irpin, there are corpses in the basements and in the streets.. The occupiers do not allow to collect the bodies, not even the Red Cross is allowed to do that, they shoot at the cars carrying the humanitarian aid. On the 7th of March, a Ukrainian virtuoso pilot, who has already become a legend and got a name “The Ghost of Kyiv”, saved thousands of lives of his fellow countrymen by shooting the enemy’s ‘Calibr’ rocket in the Kyiv region. The missile fell around Obukhiv. The unknown pilot, who in Ukraine is called “The Ghost of Kyiv,” shot down 16 aircrafts of the occupiers in 5 days of war. The invaders are scared of him more than they are scared of the anti-aircraft systems. And the Kyiv citizens, for the granted safety, have been calling him “an angel.”
The fifteenth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people against the Russian invasion is going on. I miss my dad so much. I love you, daddy, so-so much. I am worried and want you to come back alive and healthy. He was first sent to Odesa region to defend a military unit; he got a military rank there. Dad would call us at any time he could, specifically in the mornings and in the evenings. He was there for over a week. They were evacuated somewhere else the other day, I don’t know where. He says that they were driving for no longer that 40minutes. But he did not tell where exactly because someone could be recording or listening to the phone conversation. His voice grew more disturbed as compared to when he was at the previous location. We want to find out where he is, Mom: “Are you in Odesa region? Or in some other one?” Dad: “Marina, I am not going to say anything. Neither “yes,” nor “no.” I can’t.”
Mom: “At least tell me if everything is okay!?”
Dad; “we’ve got field kitchen here.”
I hope that everything will be calm. The horrible events haven’t left the city of Mariupol. There, on the 9th of March, as a result of the aviation strike on Mariupol maternity hospital #2, 17 people were injured, among those were the staff and those who gave birth.
As of the morning of the 9th of March, they reported about 1207 civilian victims in Mariupol. On the Crimean direction, they have fixated the strengthening of the enemy’s military groups by the addition of the battalion tactical group from the 336th Separate Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In the occupied Mariupol, approximately 1300 civilians were killed under Russian fire. The bodies are put in the mass grave at the outskirts of Mariupol, because people cannot bury their dead due to the strong shelling by the Russian Forces.
The Russians do not allow to evacuate the civilians, they use them as hostages, in order to force the garrison to surrender. Genocide in Europe in the 21st century looks like this. 400 of multistorey buildings in Kharkiv are destroyed by the enemy army. The enemy continues the offensive operation in against Ukraine. After suffering casualties on Polissia, Siversk, South Buh directions, the enemy was stopped at the positions where he previously succussed, he is regrouping the army, restores the combat capability of units, replenishes stocks.
Without reaching their goals, they keep launching rocket-bomb strikes on the objects of infrastructure. Sumy is left without water as a result of the morning air attack. “As a result of the air-raid strikes at 4:50 am, the water utility facilities were left without power. Water supply of the city has stopped. All of the services and enterprises are working in an intensified mode. The buses have already left for Mariupol and Sumy. As a result of the shelling of Mariupol at night, 8 people are wounded, 11 buildings are destroyed, 167 buildings were damaged, a hospital, 11 educational institution buildings.
Unfortunately, all of the siren sounds have become regular for Ukrainians. The situation in Mariupol is getting worse. Today is the 17th day of the Russian-Ukrainian war. I went to walk my dog today. I went down almost to the railroad and felt the aircraft noise, I could hear it very well. We stopped and looked up to the sky. An aircraft was flying slowly over Marianiv fields. I first thought I would go home, but I changed my mind. While sitting on the bench, I was throwing atoy to my dog. A man came up to me from the side of the park, he said: “You are probably tired of sitting at home, so you decided to go for a walk?” I responded that he was exactly right. On the opposite side, the guys from the territorial defense were hiding on their position. It was interesting to watch how they were watching me. I went further and they got closer. I went closer, and they withdrove (they were hiding in the bushes, although one could not see them anyway).
In the evenings of March 13, someone shared the information about the family of a woman from our settlement, Kharchenko (Stanislavska) Iuliia. They live in Mariupol, Donetsk region. The family could not evacuate. Starting from March 2, no-one have been able to reach either Iulia or her husband Andrii. They have a small child with them, their boy is 6 months old. Many people have reposted about them, there are over 1000 reposts on Facebook. I couldn’t just sit there, so I wrote to a Ukrainian actor (Anna Huliaieva) and a singer (Iryna Fedyshyn). They responded to the plea for help to share the information about the missing ones, which I thanked them for. The morning of March 14 started from online school. We were supposed to have 7 classes according to our schedule, but because of the war, we only had 2. It is 7:06 pm on the clock. 5238 people shared the information about the family on Facebook. I feel so sorry for all them – those who managed and those who did not manage to evacuate from the hot spots. Can you imagine that the life under the bullets is such horror?! Can you imagine how it is to live when the tanks are rolling under one’s windows? When you put all your money into that apartment in the capital and in a second “boom” and it’s destroyed? Or how after one strike a house is levelled with the ground? The majority of Ukrainians haven’t known about this, but the war has taught this. Fortunately, it’s only the refugees who come to our village, not the occupiers.
This is just a horror. The 20th day of the war. We have been hearing sirens for the entire day. Today my dad has told us the bad news. He told us that the enemy had tracked them and launched three missiles which hit their quarters. Two of them have exploded. The first refugees have been able to escape from Mariupol, 160 people managed to leave in their private vehicles. The world is with Ukraine, the British government has launched a special website “Home for Ukraine” for those who want to host a refugee. In the first 5 hours, 43,8 thousand people have registered there. It became known that 14 enemy ships have entered the Black Sea, which are moving in the direction of Odesa. In Avdiivka, Marinka – there are bombings. The Russians have launched ‘grads’ on Avdiivka Coke Plant.
Marinka, Novomykhailivka, Stepne – there is no electricity. The bombings go on.
The enemy aviation is activate in Toretsk. There are constant air-raid sirens at night: Chernihiv, Pryluky, Oster, Desna.
Over the last day, the Russian army has been shelling the suburbs and residential areas of Chernihiv. Kherson oblast is under a temporary occupation. Those people who survived the bombings, are dying of illnesses and lack of medications – there is no-one to bury them. In 20 days, at least 28 buildings of worship have been destroyed – mostly orthodox churches.
Today, on the 17.03.2022, we were told that Iulia’s family from Mariupol was found. Iulia was able to connect with the relatives and gave them a sign that they are alive. They escaped to some village or small town on the Russian border, but it is no better there, there are also constant bombings there. I was shocked by how many people were not indifferent. Under the post (publication) as of today (March 18), there were 114 795 shares. These numbers exactly. We can say now that Luhansk oblast is now under Russian side, but why keep destroying it? There are already 27 buildings damaged there. In Luhansk region, the shootings do not subside over all of the front line. In Mariupol, Donesk region, 80-90% of the city has been bombed, there is not a single building without damage – this is what the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Serhii Orlov, reports. I am slowly getting used to this situation. I even turned off the air-siren notices. I am trying not to listen to the news and I think that it is getting better already. But then when I read and learn about all the horrible news, my heart sinks. I have been distracted over the last week, because we have classes now. Not all of them are synchronized because of the military actions in Ukraine. But we get homework.
More and more Russian rockets fly over Vinnytsia oblast now. Fortunately, they get shot down and they don’t reach their aims. Today, one rocket exploded on the territory of Shpykiv territorial community around 4 am. At such a distance, we could hear it too, although everybody was asleep at that time. In Zaporizhhzia, volunteers have discovered two railcars with metal which the enemy was going to use for shooting at Ukrainian military. Instead, it will now serve for the needs of the Ukrainian defense. The 24th of February could be called “Black Thursday,” as on this day the tragedy started. At the age of 14, I have learned what real war is. When I was reading the world history and history of Ukraine, I couldn’t comprehend the pain and the losses of the people of that time, but now… I have talked to my father again, at first I was speaking calmly, and then I could not hold back my tears by the end of the conversation. His voice was so disturbed, she speaks in a serious, clear, no-nonsense manner. There was information, that Russian troops will soon withdraw. We want to believe that and hope for the best. At this time, the majority is judging the people who went abroad. In my opinion, they should not be judged, because everyone has their own life to fight for. Some people have small children, others have left on their own, everyone wants to save their lives. There are so many displaced people in our village that one can see a lot of strangers outside.
And this event touched me. A woman I know, who barely survived, has told this story. A family (a wife and a husband) live in a village outside of Kyiv, when all the territory of that district was captured by the Russian army, then all the people who stayed there were taken captives. All of them were brought to some kind of room where there were a lot of people (all of them were women and children). A military man was watching all of them, he was holding a gun. They were told that everyone had to lie down on the floor without turning and if anyone moves – they would shoot them. One woman turned around and they shoot her in her leg, she screamed: “Help! It hurts! Help!!!” But no-one even moved, it was so scary. She asked the occupier to shoot her dead, so that she does not have to suffer, but he did not shoot. Before next morning, that woman died of pain and stress. The woman I know continued…”I was begging him to let me and my husband go, but he said that if he does not kill them there, snipers would kill them or they would step on a mine that would tear the apart.” Then, perhaps our of pity, he let them go saying: “Do not walk! Crawl!” This is what they did, they were crawling over days and nights, through fields and forests. And then, she says, a sniper spotted them and shot at them, the bullet got to the heels of the shoes and the people acted dead, they stayed like that for a while and then they continued crawling. After a few days, without water and and food they got to some village, where they were taken for evacuation and right now they are taken care of not far from our village. Such sacrifices to just live.
Today is the day 24.03.2022 – exactly a month ago we first felt a horrible life in the times of war. It is the war that took lives of many innocent people. Some people survived and some did not, to today’s “anniversary”. Over this month, the enemies have ruined a lot of what our parents have built with their own hands. But our armed forces will save our lives, I believe in them. It is calm here, although there are sirens and rockets flying. Today, on the 24th of March at 7 pm, when it got dark, it was dark and the sky was without stars, my mom and I saw that something was moving with high speed from one village to another. We were trying to look at it closely, decided to call the territorial defence. We called them and said that something is moving with high speed, an unknown object, they said in a disturbed voice: “Describe it, what is it flying? A rocket? A helicopter? A drone? What is it?” Then they spotted it with a naked eye. They responded that they were ready to go. They call him and said: “We ran to look into the binoculars, we look at it and it’s a tractor. Phew, thank God!”
A month of pain, suffering, tears, faith, hatred, hope. A month of such emotions, which we could not even think of, that we could feel that. A month that showed how strong and resilient. By paying such a painful price, but we have found out the truth. The month which divided our lives into “before” and “after.”
On the 25th of March, at 12:20, I was resting after my classes ended, I was lying down next to the window. Suddenly, my house started shaking, and at this moment I felt the noise of the aircraft. I got very scared, because the sound was powerful. After quickly opening the curtains, I saw that an aircraft flew over our garage in the direction of Vinnytsia. I was shocked. My younger brother and sister were in the house with me. I was so scared that I could not even unblock my phone to let my mother know. The panic prevailed over me. A dream flashed in front of my eyes. In a second, I remembered that I dreamed of such situation and the same aircraft. Then, around 4 pm, I was at school, people from my village informed that they heard of and even saw how two cruise missiles were flying very low towards Vinnytsia. While my mom and I were on own way home, my mom’s friend’s husband called and said that two rockets hit and exploded in Vinnytsia where they live, so that his balcony door opened. The Russians were aiming 6 missiles at Vinnytsia. The anti-aircraft system shot some of the missiles, and others hit the city’s infrastructure.
Tonight was quite disturbing, It was exactly on the night of March 27 from 9:45 pm to 22:25 pm that right where we live (over Vinnytsia region) 11 cfuise missiles of the enemy flew over. It was unbelievably scary. Russian military have got their new record, they launched 70 cruise missiles in a row. Anti-aircraft system shot 62 of them but did not shoot the other 8. The missiles which were not destroyed in the air, fell down and damaged the infrastructure and the territory of Ukraine. My friends texted me immediately expressing their support, they also told me about what they saw and heard.
The situation is not getting better now. There are sirens, aircrafts, the military equipment is being transported, the warriors are fighting for our better future… Today is the 4th of April. A couple of days ago, the enemies have encircled the territory of Ukraine form Transnistria, it is about 100 kilometres away from us. They are getting closer to us. Mariupol is now a cemetery with ruins. They search for people who are missing. The burying services workers in Bucha, have already found and buried 330-340 bodies of civilians, who were tortured and killed by the occupiers. Over the previous day, Russians shelled the district of Saltivka, Piatykhatky, Derhachi in Kharkiv region 17 times. Zelenohorsk in Dnipropetrovsk region was shelled with a phosphorous projectile. Thankfully, there are no victims, - reports the mayor Dmytro Neveselyi. Mykolaiv was shelled with cassette projectiles. Our aunt (my father’s sister) lives in Odesa and is in contact with us. Today, she told that they shelled an oil depository. She could see the smoke from her window.
I have not written stories for a while. Thank God today has come, it is the 15th of April already. It is more or less quiet here, but intense war is going on in Donbas. It is ruined by the enemy, but Ukrainian Armed Forces are not giving up. My dad called us and told us that they were informed about Russia’s attack across all of the territory of Ukraine, my dad told us not to ignore air-arid sirens.
Those ‘golden’ words: “I am home already” made me cry the tears of joy. It is 29th of April 2022, we drove to the hospital, while we were waiting for the results – we decided to walk into a café. And at that moment, someone started calling, it was my dad joyously saying: “I am home now!”. I was so happy that could not hold back my tears. I cannot express how I felt in my soul at that time.
These inhuman beings organized the 9th of May on the territory of Ukraine (Mariupol, Kherson), and also in Russia, they had a Victory Day parade. How could they? Now they are attacking Odesa. Explosions are heard, missiles hit the infrastructure of the city, residential buildings, apartments, bridges… When will it all end?
